Next
month, the first police contingent will begin patrolling the troubled
island of Bougainville, which is still recovering from years of
secessionist conflict. More police will arrive in the PNG capital of Port
Moresby in November.

Sir Rabbie said the program was valuable and
necessary. "Everyone in Papua New Guinea recognises that there is a very
serious problem and we have to address it with assistance if we can get it
from anywhere," he said.

The radical proposal, which follows the
Solomon Islands intervention as the next step in Australia's more
interventionist stance aimed at preventing failed states in the Pacific's
"arc of instability", has been attacked by a small number of PNG
politicians but welcomed by a population besieged by violence.